Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Progress #6

Today I found an article about a lawsuit that was filed because parents believed their child developed autism from vaccines. The parents believed that the thimerosal caused their children to develop autism. Even though some scientific studies have found no connection between thimerosal and autism, yet there is still no conclusive evidence. The major point that the family was making was that the sharp rise in the number of autism diagnoses was a direct result of mercury-laced vaccinations. In order for the case to rule in favor of the parents there must be a link found between autism and shots. Thimerosal was removed from vaccines in 1999, however some critics believe the decision was made to late and that the health agencies, pediatricians and research just claim that the vaccines were always safe. This is interesting because there is a lack of scientific proof if this in fact true. However, scientists say that the level of mercury in a shot is minimal and is “equal to the amount found in a tuna fish sandwich.” The autism spectrum has expanded over the past twenty years, and some believe that it is because of infant immunizations.

1 comment:

Katie said...

I found it really interesting how there was no scientific proof that there is a link between autism and vaccines, but there is also no scientific proof to show that vaccines are safe. I think that the law suit shows how much different the opinions are of the family and scientist. While the scientists say that there is no connection there are still people who believe there are.